Hiking Trails
THANK YOU!
To all the amazing volunteers who helped make our Annual Spring Cleaning event on our Public Trails a big success: we Thank You! We gathered a huge pile of garbage and litter, and the Bathurst parking area and trails are much improved. We deeply appreciate all your time, your hard work, and especially your support of the KSR public trail system and research mission.
Signs posted, new trail map forthcoming!
Our public hiking trails are a much-loved local resource for hikers, dog-walkers, and naturalists young and old. However, not everyone who visits our trails is well-intentioned.
We've posted new signs to communicate the rules and expectations of our trails. We've also posted some contact information! If you see visitors misusing the trails, please assist us in managing them by notifying us (call 905-727-3333, or email ksr.info@utoronto.ca).
The accessibility of the public trails in our ecological laboratory depends upon your cooperation! Thank you!
Enjoying Jokers Hill—Hiking Trails of the Koffler Scientific Reserve
If you plan to walk our public trails, be sure to download, print and take the following map with you.
Please note that all users of the Koffler Scientific Reserve Public Trails do so at their own risk, and that the Reserve is not responsible for any problems that may occur on our trails.
The most significant conservation measure ever taken at Jokers Hill was when General Mann, one of its first owners, sent bulldozers through the forest! Those bulldozers created a network of bridle trails that soon attracted the equestrian community, who in turn, made Jokers Hill a vibrant centre able to resist the pressures of development during the post-World War II building boom. The horses are gone, but many of the trails remain. Thanks to efforts of our partners, the Oak Ridges Trail Association, York Region and King Township, the University of Toronto can open several routes on the Reserve’s eastern end for public enjoyment.
- Stay on marked trails at all times.
- Observe the signs closing trails under rehabilitation.
- Dogs are allowed, but must be on leash and out of streams and ponds.
- Hunting and fishing are prohibited.
- No horses or wheeled vehicles of any type (including bicycles)
- Fire, fireworks and firearms are prohibited (including paintball guns)
- Leave the flowers, plants, mushrooms and animals, but take your trash.
- Do not disturb the flagging, stakes or other markers denoting research sites.
Access and Hours
Public trails can be accessed from two points. The main public access is through the Bathurst Street entrance (between Highway 9 and Mullock Drive). Take the first turn-in on the west side of Bathurst, just north of Keith Avenue, Newmarket. The Blue Trail can also be reached through the Thornton-Bales Conservation Area, on the 19th Sideroad (Mullock Drive), King Township.
Trails are open for use starting one hour after sunrise and ending one hour before sundown. Night use is strictly prohibited and violators are subject to arrest for trespassing.
Map
Three trails loop through the eastern 50 hectares of Koffler Scientific Reserve.
Green: Rising gently from the Bathurst entrance to a scenic overlook of Newmarket and points east, this trail runs though habitat restored to red pine plantation in the 1960’s.
Red: A longer loop, the red trail rises and falls through the rolling landscape. Restored woodlots give way to naturally-recovering forest of oak, maple, beech and yellow birch.
Blue: Extending form the Bathurst Street entrance through to the Thornton-Bales Conservation Area – “the 99 steps”. Passing through regenerating forest, past the east pond and through a maple sugar bush, this trail is a side spur of the Oak Ridges Trail, and maintained through the generous efforts of the Oak Ridges Trial Association.
